Dell revives WinPho handset brand for Win 8.1 fondleslabs

Dell has revamped its tablet line-up, hoping to hook punters in - professionals in particular - with removable batteries, full-size USB ports, quad-core chippery and the revival of an old but apparently popular moniker, Venue Pro. Dell last used Venue Pro back in 2011 for its first and only foray into Windows Phone 7 handsets …

[mmeier]

Sadly the article does not answer the three important questions:

Will the BayTrail version support 4GB and a "full sized" SSD instead of the eMMC most Atoms have now?

Does the 11 inch model come with an inductive digitizer and if yes WACOM or NTrig (Dell has used both)?

Does the 11 inch model come with LTE?

If all three answer yes (and 2b WACOM) this is a serious player with a nice pricing

[Anonymous Coward]

Much better price

Wow. Dell is going to beat the hell out of MS on price, compared to the Surface Pro. £419 including VAT is much closer to what these things should be priced at. The removable battery is a killer feature.

Maybe someone finally wants to sell some Windows 8 tablets?

[mmeier]

Re: Much better price

Starting price so this is (we are talking DELL) the ATOM based unit without LTE and (if there is a choice of batteries) the smallest batterie. Just look at the DELL Latitute 10 and it's pricing system. The data given for the 11'' model obviously includes the i3/i5 model since BayTrail has a memory limit of 4GB so the 8GB model will likely be priced similar to an S/P2

IF DELL does the BayTrail right (option for 4GB, real SSD, MiraCast, Wacom, LTE) at a price below the 4GB/128GB Surface/Pro2 they have a unit that will get nice sales in business (like the Latitude-10 did)

A "toybreed" touch only might get some of the iCrowd since those are conditionend to think "pen = evil" and Win8 might become the new "I am different" system

If their "big versions" come in at a price around(or even slightly above) S/P2s 8GB configurations (and the LTE variant out in early 2014) then you can talk competition since the slightly bigger screen and replaceable battery are bonus points.

[Simon Rockman]

It's a shame the handsets didn't succeed.

The world needs a Windows handset with a physical keyboard.

[mmeier]

Re: It's a shame the handsets didn't succeed.

Or a WP8 version of the N770 upgraded with WACOM (a WP8 variant of the Note2 would be ok as well). That might get me to buy another smartphone. Without it smartphone era will end for me 31/March/2014. 10-11'' tablet pc and a dumbphone are better IMHO

[Fizzl]

Venue 8 + a small phone for the once a month when I call someone is sounding like the upgrade from note 2.

4G would have been nice.

[Mikel]

Related note

No more Windows RT devices from Dell. "And then there were none."

[Jambo Widetrousers]

Not surprising

...since Microsoft put up $2bn as a loan to help Michael Dell buy his company back:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Lake_Partners

Back scratching and all that. Mind you, I'm a proud owner of both a Windows Phone (HTC 8X) and Surface Pro, so this is all to the good as far as the platforms are concerned.

[mmeier]

Re: Not surprising

Actually this is not the first tablet pc from DELL they have been doing that for quite some time now. At least two Atom based units have been done.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmmm, I bet this is only being done because now Microsoft is an investor in Dell. Dell needs to repay that $2 billion somehow.

[Atonnis]

Weellllll....shit.

There goes my last, dying hope of a WP device with a physical keyboard. I loved my DVP, until the Mrs knocked it off the kitchen sideboard onto the tiles... :(

[Richard Gadsden]

If Dell are reviving a brand

How about Axim? I do actually have positive associations with Axim